PAPER 117
- GOD THE SUPREME
To the extent that we do
the will of God in whatever universe station we may have our
existence, in that measure the almighty potential of the
Supreme becomes one step more actual. The will of God is the
purpose of the First Source and Center as it is
potentialized in the three Absolutes, personalized in the
Eternal Son, conjoined for universe action in the Infinite
Spirit, and eternalized in the everlasting patterns of
Paradise. And God the Supreme is becoming the highest finite
manifestation of the total will of God.
If all grand universers
should ever relatively achieve the full living of the will
of God, then would the time-space creations be settled in
light and life, and then would the Almighty, the deity
potential of Supremacy, become factual in the emergence of
the divine personality of God the Supreme.
When an evolving mind
becomes attuned to the circuits of cosmic mind, when an
evolving universe becomes stabilized after the pattern of
the central universe, when an advancing spirit contacts the
united ministry of the Master Spirits, when an ascending
mortal personality finally attunes to the divine leading of
the indwelling Adjuster, then has the actuality of the
Supreme become real by one more degree in the universes;
then has the divinity of Supremacy advanced one more step
toward cosmic realization.
The parts and individuals
of the grand universe evolve as a reflection of the total
evolution of the Supreme, while in turn the Supreme is the
synthetic cumulative total of all grand universe evolution.
From the mortal viewpoint both are evolutionary and
experiential reciprocals.
1. NATURE OF THE
SUPREME BEING
The Supreme is the beauty
of physical harmony, the truth of intellectual meaning, and
the goodness of spiritual value. He is the sweetness of true
success and the joy of everlasting achievement. He is the
oversoul of the grand universe, the consciousness of the
finite cosmos, the completion of finite reality, and the
personification of Creator-creature experience. Throughout
all future eternity God the Supreme will voice the reality
of volitional experience in the trinity relationships of
Deity.
In the persons of the
Supreme Creators the Gods have descended from Paradise to
the domains of time and space, there to create and to evolve
creatures with Paradise-attainment capacity who can ascend
thereto in quest of the Father. This universe procession of
descending God-revealing Creators and ascending God-seeking
creatures is revelatory of the Deity evolution of the
Supreme, in whom
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both descenders and ascenders
achieve mutuality of understanding, the discovery of eternal
and universal brotherhood. The Supreme Being thus becomes
the finite synthesis of the experience of the
perfect-Creator cause and the perfecting-creature response.
The grand universe
contains the possibility of, and ever seeks for, complete
unification, and this grows out of the fact that this cosmic
existence is a consequence of the creative acts and the
power mandates of the Paradise Trinity, which is unqualified
unity. This very trinitarian unity is expressed in the
finite cosmos in the Supreme, whose reality becomes
increasingly apparent as the universes attain to the maximum
level of Trinity identification.
The will of the Creator
and the will of the creature are qualitatively different,
but they are also experientially akin, for creature and
Creator can collaborate in the achievement of universe
perfection. Man can work in liaison with God and thereby
cocreate an eternal finaliter. God can work even as humanity
in the incarnations of his Sons, who thereby achieve the
supremacy of creature experience.
In the Supreme Being,
Creator and creature are united in one Deity whose will is
expressive of one divine personality. And this will of the
Supreme is something more than the will of either creature
or Creator, even as the sovereign will of the Master Son of
Nebadon is now something more than a combination of the will
of divinity and humanity. The union of Paradise perfection
and time-space experience yields a new meaning value on
deity levels of reality.
The evolving divine nature
of the Supreme is becoming a faithful portrayal of the
matchless experience of all creatures and of all Creators in
the grand universe. In the Supreme, creatorship and
creaturehood are at one; they are forever united by that
experience which was born of the vicissitudes attendant upon
the solution of the manifold problems which beset all finite
creation as it pursues the eternal path in quest of
perfection and liberation from the fetters of
incompleteness.
Truth, beauty, and
goodness are correlated in the ministry of the Spirit, the
grandeur of Paradise, the mercy of the Son, and the
experience of the Supreme. God the Supreme is truth,
beauty, and goodness, for these concepts of divinity
represent finite maximums of ideational experience. The
eternal sources of these triune qualities of divinity are on
superfinite levels, but a creature could only conceive of
such sources as supertruth, superbeauty, and supergoodness.
Michael, a creator,
revealed the divine love of the Creator Father for his
terrestrial children. And having discovered and received
this divine affection, men can aspire to reveal this love to
their brethren in the flesh. Such creature affection is a
true reflection of the love of the Supreme.
The Supreme is
symmetrically inclusive. The First Source and Center is
potential in the three great Absolutes, is actual in
Paradise, in the Son, and in the Spirit; but the Supreme is
both actual and potential, a being of personal supremacy and
of almighty power, responsive alike to creature effort and
Creator purpose; self-acting upon the universe and
self-reactive to the sum total of the universe; and at one
and the same time the supreme creator and the supreme
creature. The Deity of Supremacy is thus expressive of the
sum total of the entire finite.
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2. THE SOURCE OF
EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH
The Supreme is
God-in-time; his is the secret of creature growth in time;
his also is the conquest of the incomplete present and the
consummation of the perfecting future. And the final fruits
of all finite growth are: power controlled through mind by
spirit by virtue of the unifying and creative presence of
personality. The culminating consequence of all this growth
is the Supreme Being.
To mortal man, existence
is equivalent to growth. And so indeed it would seem to be,
even in the larger universe sense, for spirit-led existence
does seem to result in experiential growth--augmentation of
status. We have long held, however, that the present growth
which characterizes creature existence in the present
universe age is a function of the Supreme. We equally hold
that this kind of growth is peculiar to the age of the
growth of the Supreme, and that it will terminate with the
completion of the growth of the Supreme.
Consider the status of the
creature-trinitized sons: They are born and live in the
present universe age; they have personalities, together with
mind and spirit endowments. They have experiences and the
memory thereof, but they do not grow as do ascenders.
It is our belief and understanding that these
creature-trinitized sons, while they are in the
present universe age, are really of the next universe
age--the age which will follow the completion of the growth
of the Supreme. Hence they are not in the Supreme as
of his present status of incompleteness and consequent
growth. Thus they are nonparticipating in the experiential
growth of the present universe age, being held in reserve
for the next universe age.
My own order, the Mighty
Messengers, being Trinity embraced, are nonparticipating in
the growth of the present universe age. In a sense we are in
status as of the preceding universe age as in fact are the
Stationary Sons of the Trinity. One thing is certain: Our
status is fixed by the Trinity embrace, and experience no
longer eventuates in growth.
This is not true of the
finaliters nor of any other of the evolutionary and
experiential orders which are participants in the growth
process of the Supreme. You mortals now living on Urantia
who may aspire to Paradise attainment and finaliter status
should understand that such a destiny is only realizable
because you are in and of the Supreme, hence are
participants in the cycle of the growth of the Supreme.
There will come an end
sometime to the growth of the Supreme; his status will
achieve completion (in the energy-spirit sense). This
termination of the evolution of the Supreme will also
witness the ending of creature evolution as a part of
Supremacy. What kind of growth may characterize the
universes of outer space, we do not know. But we are very
sure that it will be something very different from anything
that has been seen in the present age of the evolution of
the seven superuniverses. It will undoubtedly be the
function of the evolutionary citizens of the grand universe
to compensate the outer-spacers for this deprivation of the
growth of Supremacy.
As existent upon the
consummation of the present universe age, the Supreme Being
will function as an experiential sovereign in the grand
universe. Outer-spacers--citizens of the next universe
age--will have a postsuperuniverse growth potential, a
capacity for evolutionary attainment presupposing the
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sovereignty of the Almighty
Supreme, hence excluding creature participation in the
power-personality synthesis of the present universe age.
Thus may the
incompleteness of the Supreme be regarded as a virtue since
it makes possible the evolutionary growth of the
creature-creation of the present universes. Emptiness does
have its virtue, for it may become experientially filled.
One of the most intriguing
questions in finite philosophy is this: Does the Supreme
Being actualize in response to the evolution of the grand
universe, or does this finite cosmos progressively evolve in
response to the gradual actualization of the Supreme? Or is
it possible that they are mutually interdependent for their
development? that they are evolutionary reciprocals, each
initiating the growth of the other? Of this we are certain:
Creatures and universes, high and low, are evolving within
the Supreme, and as they evolve, there is appearing the
unified summation of the entire finite activity of this
universe age. And this is the appearance of the Supreme
Being, to all personalities the evolution of the almighty
power of God the Supreme.
3. SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE SUPREME TO UNIVERSE CREATURES
The cosmic reality
variously designated as the Supreme Being, God the Supreme,
and the Almighty Supreme, is the complex and universal
synthesis of the emerging phases of all finite realities.
The far-flung diversification of eternal energy, divine
spirit, and universal mind attains finite culmination in the
evolution of the Supreme, who is the sum total of all finite
growth, self-realized on deity levels of finite maximum
completion.
The Supreme is the divine
channel through which flows the creative infinity of the
triodities that crystallizes into the galactic panorama of
space, against which takes place the magnificent personality
drama of time: the spirit conquest of energy-matter through
the mediation of mind.
Said Jesus: "I am the
living way," and so he is the living way from the material
level of self-consciousness to the spiritual level of
God-consciousness. And even as he is this living way of
ascension from the self to God, so is the Supreme the living
way from finite consciousness to transcendence of
consciousness, even to the insight of absonity.
Your Creator Son can
actually be such a living channel from humanity to divinity
since he has personally experienced the fullness of the
traversal of this universe path of progression, from the
true humanity of Joshua ben Joseph, the Son of Man, to the
Paradise divinity of Michael of Nebadon, the Son of the
infinite God. Similarly can the Supreme Being function as
the universe approach to the transcendence of finite
limitations, for he is the actual embodiment and personal
epitome of all creature evolution, progression, and
spiritualization. Even the grand universe experiences of the
descending personalities from Paradise are that part of his
experience which is complemental to his summation of the
ascending experiences of the pilgrims of time.
Mortal man is more than
figuratively made in the image of God. From a physical
standpoint this statement is hardly true, but with reference
to certain universe potentialities it is an actual fact. In
the human race, something of
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the same drama of
evolutionary attainment is being unfolded as takes place, on
a vastly larger scale, in the universe of universes. Man, a
volitional personality, becomes creative in liaison with an
Adjuster, an impersonal entity, in the presence of the
finite potentialities of the Supreme, and the result is the
flowering of an immortal soul. In the universes the Creator
personalities of time and space function in liaison with the
impersonal spirit of the Paradise Trinity and become thereby
creative of a new power potential of Deity reality.
Mortal man, being a
creature, is not exactly like the Supreme Being, who is
deity, but man's evolution does in some ways resemble the
growth of the Supreme. Man consciously grows from the
material toward the spiritual by the strength, power, and
persistency of his own decisions; he also grows as his
Thought Adjuster develops new techniques for reaching down
from the spiritual to the morontial soul levels; and once
the soul comes into being, it begins to grow in and of
itself.
This is somewhat like the
way in which the Supreme Being expands. His sovereignty
grows in and out of the acts and achievements of the Supreme
Creator Personalities; that is the evolution of the majesty
of his power as the ruler of the grand universe. His deity
nature is likewise dependent on the pre-existent unity of
the Paradise Trinity. But there is still another aspect to
the evolution of God the Supreme: He is not only
Creator-evolved and Trinity-derived; he is also self-evolved
and self-derived. God the Supreme is himself a volitional,
creative participant in his own deity actualization. The
human morontial soul is likewise a volitional, cocreative
partner in its own immortalization.
The Father collaborates
with the Conjoint Actor in manipulating the energies of
Paradise and in rendering these responsive to the Supreme.
The Father collaborates with the Eternal Son in the
production of Creator personalities whose acts will sometime
culminate in the sovereignty of the Supreme. The Father
collaborates with both Son and Spirit in the creation of
Trinity personalities to function as rulers of the grand
universe until such time as the completed evolution of the
Supreme qualifies him to assume that sovereignty. The Father
co-operates with his Deity and non-Deity co-ordinates in
these and many other ways in the furtherance of the
evolution of Supremacy, but he also functions alone in these
matters. And his solitary function is probably best revealed
in the ministry of the Thought Adjusters and their
associated entities.
Deity is unity,
existential in the Trinity, experiential in the Supreme,
and, in mortals, creature-realized in Adjuster fusion. The
presence of the Thought Adjusters in mortal man reveals the
essential unity of the universe, for man, the lowest
possible type of universe personality, contains within
himself an actual fragment of the highest and eternal
reality, even the original Father of all personalities.
The Supreme Being evolves
by virtue of his liaison with the Paradise Trinity and in
consequence of the divinity successes of the creator and
administrator children of that Trinity. Man's immortal soul
evolves its own eternal destiny by association with the
divine presence of the Paradise Father and in accordance
with the personality decisions of the human mind. What the
Trinity is to God the Supreme, the Adjuster is to evolving
man.
During the present
universe age the Supreme Being is apparently unable to
function directly as a creator except in those instances
where the finite possibilities
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of action have been exhausted
by the creative agencies of time and space. Thus far in
universe history this has transpired but once; when the
possibilities of finite action in the matter of universe
reflectivity had been exhausted, then did the Supreme
function as the creative culminator of all antecedent
creator actions. And we believe he will again function as a
culminator in future ages whenever antecedent creatorship
has completed an appropriate cycle of creative activity.
The Supreme Being did not
create man, but man was literally created out of, his very
life was derived from, the potentiality of the Supreme. Nor
does he evolve man; yet is the Supreme himself the very
essence of evolution. From the finite standpoint, we
actually live, move, and have our being within the immanence
of the Supreme.
The Supreme apparently
cannot initiate original causation but appears to be the
catalyzer of all universe growth and is seemingly destined
to provide totality culmination as regards the destiny of
all experiential-evolutionary beings. The Father originates
the concept of a finite cosmos; the Creator Sons factualize
this idea in time and space with the consent and
co-operation of the Creative Spirits; the Supreme culminates
the total finite and establishes its relationship with the
destiny of the absonite.
4. THE FINITE GOD
As we view the ceaseless
struggles of the creature creation for perfection of status
and divinity of being, we cannot but believe that these
unending efforts bespeak the unceasing struggle of the
Supreme for divine self-realization. God the Supreme is the
finite Deity, and he must cope with the problems of the
finite in the total sense of that word. Our struggles with
the vicissitudes of time in the evolutions of space are
reflections of his efforts to achieve reality of self and
completion of sovereignty within the sphere of action which
his evolving nature is expanding to the outermost limits of
possibility.
Throughout the grand
universe the Supreme struggles for expression. His divine
evolution is in measure predicated on the wisdom-action of
every personality in existence. When a human being chooses
eternal survival, he is cocreating destiny; and in the life
of this ascending mortal the finite God finds an increased
measure of personality self-realization and an enlargement
of experiential sovereignty. But if a creature rejects the
eternal career, that part of the Supreme which was dependent
on this creature's choice experiences inescapable delay, a
deprivation which must be compensated by substitutional or
collateral experience; as for the personality of the
nonsurvivor, it is absorbed into the oversoul of creation,
becoming a part of the Deity of the Supreme.
God is so trusting, so
loving, that he gives a portion of his divine nature into
the hands of even human beings for safekeeping and
self-realization. The Father nature, the Adjuster presence,
is indestructible regardless of the choice of the mortal
being. The child of the Supreme, the evolving self, can be
destroyed notwithstanding that the potentially unifying
personality of such a misguided self will persist as a
factor of the Deity of Supremacy.
The human personality can
truly destroy individuality of creaturehood, and though all
that was worth while in the life of such a cosmic suicide
will persist, these qualities will not persist as an
individual creature. The Supreme will again find
expression in the creatures of the universes but never again
as that particular
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person; the unique
personality of a nonascender returns to the Supreme as a
drop of water returns to the sea.
Any isolated action of the
personal parts of the finite is comparatively irrelevant to
the eventual appearance of the Supreme Whole, but the whole
is nonetheless dependent on the total acts of the manifold
parts. The personality of the individual mortal is
insignificant in the face of the total of Supremacy, but the
personality of each human being represents an irreplaceable
meaning-value in the finite; personality, having once been
expressed, never again finds identical expression except in
the continuing existence of that living personality.
And so, as we strive for
self-expression, the Supreme is striving in us, and with us,
for deity expression. As we find the Father, so has the
Supreme again found the Paradise Creator of all things. As
we master the problems of self-realization, so is the God of
experience achieving almighty supremacy in the universes of
time and space.
Mankind does not ascend
effortlessly in the universe, neither does the Supreme
evolve without purposeful and intelligent action. Creatures
do not attain perfection by mere passivity, nor can the
spirit of Supremacy factualize the power of the Almighty
without unceasing service ministry to the finite creation.
The temporal relation of
man to the Supreme is the foundation for cosmic morality,
the universal sensitivity to, and acceptance of, duty.
This is a morality which transcends the temporal sense of
relative right and wrong; it is a morality directly
predicated on the self-conscious creature's appreciation of
experiential obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal man
and all other finite creatures are created out of the living
potential of energy, mind, and spirit existent in the
Supreme. It is upon the Supreme that the Adjuster-mortal
ascender draws for the creation of the immortal and divine
character of a finaliter. It is out of the very reality of
the Supreme that the Adjuster, with the consent of the human
will, weaves the patterns of the eternal nature of an
ascending son of God.
The evolution of Adjuster
progress in the spiritualizing and eternalizing of a human
personality is directly productive of an enlargement of the
sovereignty of the Supreme. Such achievements in human
evolution are at the same time achievements in the
evolutionary actualization of the Supreme. While it is true
that creatures could not evolve without the Supreme, it is
probably also true that the evolution of the Supreme can
never be fully attained independent of the completed
evolution of all creatures. Herein lies the great cosmic
responsibility of self-conscious personalities: That Supreme
Deity is in a certain sense dependent on the choosing of the
mortal will. And the mutual progression of creature
evolution and of Supreme evolution is faithfully and fully
indicated to the Ancients of Days over the inscrutable
mechanisms of universe reflectivity.
The great challenge that
has been given to mortal man is this: Will you decide to
personalize the experiencible value meanings of the cosmos
into your own evolving selfhood? or by rejecting survival,
will you allow these secrets of Supremacy to lie dormant,
awaiting the action of another creature at some other time
who will in his way attempt a creature contribution
to the evolution of the finite God? But that will be his
contribution to the Supreme, not yours.
The great struggle of this
universe age is between the potential and the actual--the
seeking for actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed.
If mortal
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man proceeds upon the
Paradise adventure, he is following the motions of time,
which flow as currents within the stream of eternity; if
mortal man rejects the eternal career, he is moving counter
to the stream of events in the finite universes. The
mechanical creation moves on inexorably in accordance with
the unfolding purpose of the Paradise Father, but the
volitional creation has the choice of accepting or of
rejecting the role of personality participation in the
adventure of eternity. Mortal man cannot destroy the supreme
values of human existence, but he can very definitely
prevent the evolution of these values in his own personal
experience. To the extent that the human self thus refuses
to take part in the Paradise ascent, to just that extent is
the Supreme delayed in achieving divinity expression in the
grand universe.
Into the keeping of mortal
man has been given not only the Adjuster presence of the
Paradise Father but also control over the destiny of an
infinitesimal fraction of the future of the Supreme. For as
man attains human destiny, so does the Supreme achieve
destiny on deity levels.
And so the decision awaits
each of you as it once awaited each of us: Will you fail the
God of time, who is so dependent upon the decisions of the
finite mind? will you fail the Supreme personality of the
universes by the slothfulness of animalistic retrogression?
will you fail the great brother of all creatures, who is so
dependent on each creature? can you allow yourself to pass
into the realm of the unrealized when before you lies the
enchanting vista of the universe career--the divine
discovery of the Paradise Father and the divine
participation in the search for, and the evolution of, the
God of Supremacy?
God's gifts--his bestowal
of reality--are not divorcements from himself; he does not
alienate creation from himself, but he has set up tensions
in the creations circling Paradise. God first loves man and
confers upon him the potential of immortality--eternal
reality. And as man loves God, so does man become eternal in
actuality. And here is mystery: The more closely man
approaches God through love, the greater the
reality--actuality--of that man. The more man withdraws from
God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality--cessation of
existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the
Father's will, when man gives God all that he has,
then does God make that man more than he is.
5. THE OVERSOUL
OF CREATION
The great Supreme is the
cosmic oversoul of the grand universe. In him the qualities
and quantities of the cosmos do find their deity reflection;
his deity nature is the mosaic composite of the total
vastness of all creature-Creator nature throughout the
evolving universes. And the Supreme is also an actualizing
Deity embodying a creative will which embraces an evolving
universe purpose.
The intellectual,
potentially personal selves of the finite emerge from the
Third Source and Center and achieve finite time-space Deity
synthesis in the Supreme. When the creature submits to the
will of the Creator, he does not submerge or surrender his
personality; the individual personality participants in the
actualization of the finite God do not lose their volitional
selfhood by so functioning. Rather are such personalities
progressively augmented by participation in this great Deity
adventure; by such union with divinity man exalts,
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enriches, spiritualizes, and
unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of
supremacy.
The evolving immortal soul
of man, the joint creation of the material mind and the
Adjuster, ascends as such to Paradise and subsequently, when
mustered into the Corps of the Finality, becomes allied in
some new way with the spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal
Son by a technique of experience known as finaliter
transcendation. Such finaliters thus become acceptable
candidates for experiential recognition as personalities of
God the Supreme. And when these mortal intellects in the
unrevealed future assignments of the Corps of the Finality
attain the seventh stage of spirit existence, such dual
minds will become triune. These two attuned minds, the human
and the divine, will become glorified in union with the
experiential mind of the then actualized Supreme Being.
In the eternal future, God
the Supreme will be actualized--creatively expressed and
spiritually portrayed--in the spiritualized mind, the
immortal soul, of ascendant man, even as the Universal
Father was so revealed in the earth life of Jesus.
Man does not unite with
the Supreme and submerge his personal identity, but the
universe repercussions of the experience of all men do thus
form a part of the divine experiencing of the Supreme. "The
act is ours, the consequences God's."
The progressing
personality leaves a trail of actualized reality as it
passes through the ascending levels of the universes. Be
they mind, spirit, or energy, the growing creations of time
and space are modified by the progression of personality
through their domains. When man acts, the Supreme reacts,
and this transaction constitutes the fact of progression.
The great circuits of
energy, mind, and spirit are never the permanent possessions
of ascending personality; these ministries remain forever a
part of Supremacy. In the mortal experience the human
intellect resides in the rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant
mind-spirits and effects its decisions within the arena
produced by encircuitment within this ministry. Upon mortal
death the human self is everlastingly divorced from the
adjutant circuit. While these adjutants never seem to
transmit experience from one personality to another, they
can and do transmit the impersonal repercussions of
decision-action through God the Sevenfold to God the
Supreme. (At least this is true of the adjutants of worship
and wisdom.)
And so it is with the
spiritual circuits: Man utilizes these in his ascent through
the universes, but he never possesses them as a part of his
eternal personality. But these circuits of spiritual
ministry, whether Spirit of Truth, Holy Spirit, or
superuniverse spirit presences, are receptive and reactive
to the emerging values in ascending personality, and these
values are faithfully transmitted through the Sevenfold to
the Supreme.
While such spiritual
influences as the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth are
local universe ministrations, their guidance is not wholly
confined to the geographic limitations of a given local
creation. As the ascending mortal passes beyond the
boundaries of his local universe of origin, he is not
entirely deprived of the ministry of the Spirit of Truth
which has so constantly taught and guided him through the
philosophic mazes of the material and morontial worlds, in
every crisis of ascension unfailingly directing the Paradise
pilgrim, ever saying:
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"This is the way." When you
leave the domains of the local universe, through the
ministry of the spirit of the emerging Supreme Being and
through the provisions of superuniverse reflectivity, you
will still be guided in your Paradise ascent by the
comforting directive spirit of the Paradise bestowal Sons of
God.
How do these manifold
circuits of cosmic ministry register the meanings, values,
and facts of evolutionary experience in the Supreme? We are
not exactly certain, but we believe that this registry takes
place through the persons of the Supreme Creators of
Paradise origin who are the immediate bestowers of these
circuits of time and space. The mind-experience
accumulations of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, in their
ministry to the physical level of intellect, are a part of
the local universe experience of the Divine Minister, and
through this Creative Spirit they probably find registry in
the mind of Supremacy. Likewise are mortal experiences with
the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit probably registered
by similar techniques in the person of Supremacy.
Even the experience of man
and Adjuster must find echo in the divinity of God the
Supreme, for, as the Adjusters experience, they are like the
Supreme, and the evolving soul of mortal man is created out
of the pre-existent possibility for such experience within
the Supreme.
In this manner do the
manifold experiences of all creation become a part of the
evolution of Supremacy. Creatures merely utilize the
qualities and quantities of the finite as they ascend to the
Father; the impersonal consequences of such utilization
remain forever a part of the living cosmos, the Supreme
person.
What man himself takes
with him as a personality possession are the character
consequences of the experience of having used the mind and
spirit circuits of the grand universe in his Paradise
ascent. When man decides, and when he consummates this
decision in action, man experiences, and the meanings and
the values of this experience are forever a part of his
eternal character on all levels, from the finite to the
final. Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual character
represents the creature's capital accumulation of personal
decisions which have been illuminated by sincere worship,
glorified by intelligent love, and consummated in brotherly
service.
The evolving Supreme will
eventually compensate finite creatures for their inability
ever to achieve more than limited experience contact with
the universe of universes. Creatures can attain the Paradise
Father, but their evolutionary minds, being finite, are
incapable of really understanding the infinite and absolute
Father. But since all creature experiencing registers in,
and is a part of, the Supreme, when all creatures attain the
final level of finite existence, and after total universe
development makes possible their attainment of God the
Supreme as an actual divinity presence, then, inherent in
the fact of such contact, is contact with total experience.
The finite of time contains within itself the seeds of
eternity; and we are taught that, when the fullness of
evolution witnesses the exhaustion of the capacity for
cosmic growth, the total finite will embark upon the
absonite phases of the eternal career in quest of the Father
as Ultimate.
6. THE QUEST FOR
THE SUPREME
We seek the Supreme in the
universes, but we find him not. "He is the within and the
without of all things and beings, moving and quiescent.
Unrecognizable
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in his mystery, though
distant, yet is he near." The Almighty Supreme is "the form
of the yet unformed, the pattern of the yet uncreated." The
Supreme is your universe home, and when you find him, it
will be like returning home. He is your experiential parent,
and even as in the experience of human beings, so has he
grown in the experience of divine parenthood. He knows you
because he is creaturelike as well as creatorlike.
If you truly desire to
find God, you cannot help having born in your minds the
consciousness of the Supreme. As God is your divine Father,
so is the Supreme your divine Mother, in whom you are
nurtured throughout your lives as universe creatures. "How
universal is the Supreme--he is on all sides! The limitless
things of creation depend on his presence for life, and none
are refused."
What Michael is to
Nebadon, the Supreme is to the finite cosmos; his Deity is
the great avenue through which the love of the Father flows
outward to all creation, and he is the great avenue through
which finite creatures pass inward in their quest of their
Father, who is love. Even Thought Adjusters are related to
him; in original nature and divinity they are like the
Father, but when they experience the transactions of time in
the universes of space, they become like the Supreme.
The act of the creature's
choosing to do the will of the Creator is a cosmic value and
has a universe meaning which is immediately reacted to by
some unrevealed but ubiquitous force of co-ordination,
probably the functioning of the ever-enlarging action of the
Supreme Being.
The morontia soul of an
evolving mortal is really the son of the Adjuster action of
the Universal Father and the child of the cosmic reaction of
the Supreme Being, the Universal Mother. The mother
influence dominates the human personality throughout the
local universe childhood of the growing soul. The influence
of the Deity parents becomes more equal after the Adjuster
fusion and during the superuniverse career, but when the
creatures of time begin the traversal of the central
universe of eternity, the Father nature becomes increasingly
manifest, attaining its height of finite manifestation upon
the recognition of the Universal Father and the admission
into the Corps of the Finality.
In and through the
experience of finaliter attainment the experiential mother
qualities of the ascending self become tremendously affected
by contact and infusion with the spirit presence of the
Eternal Son and the mind presence of the Infinite Spirit.
Then, throughout the realms of finaliter activity in the
grand universe, there appears a new awakening of the latent
mother potential of the Supreme, a new realization of
experiential meanings, and a new synthesis of experiential
values of the entire ascension career. It appears that this
realization of self will continue in the universe careers of
the sixth-stage finaliters until the mother inheritance of
the Supreme attains to finite synchrony with the Adjuster
inheritance of the Father. This intriguing period of grand
universe function represents the continuing adult career of
the ascendant and perfected mortal.
Upon the completion of the
sixth stage of existence and the entrance upon the seventh
and final stage of spirit status, there will probably ensue
the advancing ages of enriching experience, ripening wisdom,
and divinity realization. In the nature of the finaliter
this will probably equal the completed attainment of the
mind struggle for spirit self-realization, the completion of
the co-ordination of the ascendant man-nature with the
divine Adjuster-nature within the limits
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of finite possibilities. Such
a magnificent universe self thus becomes the eternal
finaliter son of the Paradise Father as well as the eternal
universe child of the Mother Supreme, a universe self
qualified to represent both the Father and Mother of
universes and personalities in any activity or undertaking
pertaining to the finite administration of created,
creating, or evolving things and beings.
All soul-evolving humans
are literally the evolutionary sons of God the Father and
God the Mother, the Supreme Being. But until such time as
mortal man becomes soul-conscious of his divine heritage,
this assurance of Deity kinship must be faith realized.
Human life experience is the cosmic cocoon in which the
universe endowments of the Supreme Being and the universe
presence of the Universal Father (none of which are
personalities) are evolving the morontia soul of time and
the human-divine finaliter character of universe destiny and
eternal service.
Men all too often forget
that God is the greatest experience in human existence.
Other experiences are limited in their nature and content,
but the experience of God has no limits save those of the
creature's comprehension capacity, and this very experience
is in itself capacity enlarging. When men search for God,
they are searching for everything. When they find God, they
have found everything. The search for God is the unstinted
bestowal of love attended by amazing discoveries of new and
greater love to be bestowed.
All true love is from God,
and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows
this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be
captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving.
Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it
within his heart. The Father's love can become real to
mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as
he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. The great
circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to
brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the Father
appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the
indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this
love to his universe brethren, and this fraternal affection
is the essence of the love of the Supreme.
There is no approach to
the Supreme except through experience, and in the current
epochs of creation there are only three avenues of creature
approach to Supremacy:
1. The Paradise Citizens
descend from the eternal Isle through Havona, where they
acquire capacity for Supremacy comprehension through
observation of the Paradise-Havona reality differential and
by exploratory discovery of the manifold activities of the
Supreme Creator Personalities, ranging from the Master
Spirits to the Creator Sons.
2. The time-space
ascenders coming up from the evolutionary universes of the
Supreme Creators make close approach to the Supreme in the
traversal of Havona as a preliminary to the augmenting
appreciation of the unity of the Paradise Trinity.
3. The Havona natives
acquire a comprehension of the Supreme through contacts with
descending pilgrims from Paradise and ascending pilgrims
from the seven superuniverses. Havona natives are inherently
in position to harmonize the essentially different
viewpoints of the citizens of the eternal Isle and the
citizens of the evolutionary universes.
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To evolutionary creatures
there are seven great approaches to the Universal Father,
and each of these Paradise ascensions passes through the
divinity of one of the Seven Master Spirits; and each such
approach is made possible by an enlargement of experience
receptivity consequent upon the creature's having served in
the superuniverse reflective of the nature of that Master
Spirit. The sum total of these seven experiences constitutes
the present-known limits of a creature's consciousness of
the reality and actuality of God the Supreme.
It is not only man's own
limitations which prevent him from finding the finite God;
it is also the incompletion of the universe; even the
incompletion of all creatures--past, present, and
future--makes the Supreme inaccessible. God the Father can
be found by any individual who has attained the divine level
of Godlikeness, but God the Supreme will never be personally
discovered by any one creature until that far-distant
time when, through the universal attainment of perfection,
all creatures will simultaneously find him.
Despite the fact that you
cannot, in this universe age, personally find him as you can
and will find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit,
nevertheless, the Paradise ascent and subsequent universe
career will gradually create in your consciousness the
recognition of the universe presence and the cosmic action
of the God of all experience. The fruits of the spirit are
the substance of the Supreme as he is realizable in human
experience.
Man's sometime attainment
of the Supreme is consequent upon his fusion with the spirit
of Paradise Deity. With Urantians this spirit is the
Adjuster presence of the Universal Father; and though the
Mystery Monitor is from the Father and like the Father, we
doubt that even such a divine gift can achieve the
impossible task of revealing the nature of the infinite God
to a finite creature. We suspect that what the Adjusters
will reveal to future seventh-stage finaliters will be the
divinity and nature of God the Supreme. And this revelation
will be to a finite creature what the revelation of the
Infinite would be to an absolute being.
The Supreme is not
infinite, but he probably embraces all of infinity that a
finite creature can ever really comprehend. To understand
more than the Supreme is to be more than finite!
All experiential creations
are interdependent in their realization of destiny. Only
existential reality is self-contained and self-existent.
Havona and the seven superuniverses require each other to
achieve the maximum of finite attainment; likewise will they
be sometime dependent on the future universes of outer space
for finite transcendence.
A human ascender can find
the Father; God is existential and therefore real,
irrespective of the status of experience in the total
universe. But no single ascender will ever find the Supreme
until all ascenders have reached that maximum universe
maturity which qualifies them simultaneously to participate
in this discovery.
The Father is no respecter
of persons; he treats each of his ascending sons as cosmic
individuals. The Supreme likewise is no respecter of
persons; he treats his experiential children as a single
cosmic total.
Man can discover the
Father in his heart, but he will have to search for the
Supreme in the hearts of all other men; and when all
creatures perfectly reveal the love of the Supreme, then
will he become a universe actuality to all creatures. And
that is just another way of saying that the universes will
be settled in light and life.
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The attainment of perfected
self-realization by all personalities plus the attainment of
perfected equilibrium throughout the universes equals the
attainment of the Supreme and witnesses the liberation of
all finite reality from the limitations of incomplete
existence. Such an exhaustion of all finite potentials
yields the completed attainment of the Supreme and may be
otherwise defined as the completed evolutionary
actualization of the Supreme Being himself.
Men do not find the
Supreme suddenly and spectacularly as an earthquake tears
chasms into the rocks, but they find him slowly and
patiently as a river quietly wears away the soil beneath.
When you find the Father,
you will find the great cause of your spiritual ascent in
the universes; when you find the Supreme, you will discover
the great result of your career of Paradise progression.
But no God-knowing mortal
can ever be lonely in his journey through the cosmos, for he
knows that the Father walks beside him each step of the way,
while the very way that he is traversing is the presence of
the Supreme.
7. THE FUTURE OF
THE SUPREME
The completed realization
of all finite potentials equals the completion of the
realization of all evolutionary experience. This suggests
the final emergence of the Supreme as an almighty Deity
presence in the universes. We believe that the Supreme, in
this stage of development, will be as discretely
personalized as is the Eternal Son, as concretely powerized
as is the Isle of Paradise, as completely unified as is the
Conjoint Actor, and all of this within the limitations of
the finite possibilities of Supremacy at the culmination of
the present universe age.
While this is an entirely
proper concept of the future of the Supreme, we would call
attention to certain problems inherent in this concept:
1. The Unqualified
Supervisors of the Supreme could hardly be deitized at any
stage prior to his completed evolution, and yet these same
supervisors even now qualifiedly exercise the sovereignty of
supremacy concerning the universes settled in light and
life.
2. The Supreme could
hardly function in the Trinity Ultimate until he had
attained complete actuality of universe status, and yet the
Trinity Ultimate is even now a qualified reality, and you
have been informed of the existence of the Qualified
Vicegerents of the Ultimate.
3. The Supreme is not
completely real to universe creatures, but there are many
reasons for deducing that he is quite real to the Sevenfold
Deity, extending from the Universal Father on Paradise to
the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits of the local
universes.
It may be that on the
upper limits of the finite, where time conjoins transcended
time, there is some sort of blurring and blending of
sequence. It may be that the Supreme is able to forecast his
universe presence onto these supertime levels and then to a
limited degree anticipate future evolution by reflecting
this future forecast back to the created levels as the
Immanence of the Projected Incomplete. Such phenomena may be
observed wherever finite makes contact with superfinite, as
in the experiences of human beings who are indwelt
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by Thought Adjusters that are
veritable predictions of man's future universe attainments
throughout all eternity.
When mortal ascenders are
admitted to the finaliter corps of Paradise, they take an
oath to the Paradise Trinity, and in taking this oath of
allegiance, they are thereby pledging eternal fidelity to
God the Supreme, who is the Trinity as comprehended
by all finite creature personalities. Subsequently, as the
finaliter companies function throughout the evolving
universes, they are solely amenable to the mandates of
Paradise origin until the eventful times of the settling of
local universes in light and life. As the new governmental
organizations of these perfected creations begin to be
reflective of the emerging sovereignty of the Supreme, we
observe that the outlying finaliter companies then
acknowledge the jurisdictional authority of such new
governments. It appears that God the Supreme is evolving as
the unifier of the evolutionary Corps of the Finality, but
it is highly probable that the eternal destiny of these
seven corps will be directed by the Supreme as a member of
the Ultimate Trinity.
The Supreme Being contains
three superfinite possibilities for universe manifestation:
1. Absonite collaboration
in the first experiential Trinity.
2. Coabsolute relationship
in the second experiential Trinity.
3. Coinfinite
participation in the Trinity of Trinities, but we have no
satisfactory concept as to what this really means.
This is one of the
generally accepted hypotheses of the future of the Supreme,
but there are also many speculations concerning his
relations to the present grand universe subsequent to its
attainment of the status of light and life.
The present goal of the
superuniverses is to become, as they are and within their
potentials, perfect, even as is Havona. This perfection
pertains to physical and spiritual attainment, even to
administrative, governmental, and fraternal development. It
is believed that, in the ages to come, the possibilities for
disharmony, maladjustment, and misadaptation will be
eventually exhausted in the superuniverses. The energy
circuits will be in perfect balance and in complete
subjugation to mind, while spirit, in the presence of
personality, will have achieved the dominance of mind.
It is conjectured that at
this far-distant time the spirit person of the Supreme and
attained power of the Almighty will have achieved
co-ordinate development, and that both, as unified in and by
the Supreme Mind, will factualize as the Supreme Being, a
completed actuality in the universes--an actuality which
will be observable by all creature intelligences, reacted to
by all created energies, co-ordinated in all spiritual
entities, and experienced by all universe personalities.
This concept implies the
actual sovereignty of the Supreme in the grand universe. It
is altogether likely that the present Trinity administrators
will continue as his vicegerents, but we believe that the
present demarcations between the seven superuniverses will
gradually disappear, and that the entire grand universe will
function as a perfected whole.
It is possible that the
Supreme may then be personally resident on Uversa, the
headquarters of Orvonton, from which he will direct the
administration of the time creations, but this is really
only a conjecture. Certainly, though, the personality of the
Supreme Being will be definitely contactable at some
specific
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locality, although the
ubiquity of his Deity presence will probably continue to
permeate the universe of universes. What the relation of the
superuniverse citizens of that age will be to the Supreme we
do not know, but it may be something like the present
relationship between the Havona natives and the Paradise
Trinity.
The perfected grand
universe of those future days will be vastly different from
what it is at present. Gone will be the thrilling adventures
of the organization of the galaxies of space, the planting
of life on the uncertain worlds of time, and the evolving of
harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of
meanings, and goodness out of values. The time universes
will have achieved the fulfillment of finite destiny! And
perhaps for a space there will be rest, relaxation from the
agelong struggle for evolutionary perfection. But not for
long! Certainly, surely, and inexorably the enigma of the
emerging Deity of God the Ultimate will challenge these
perfected citizens of the settled universes just as their
struggling evolutionary forebears were once challenged by
the quest for God the Supreme. The curtain of cosmic destiny
will draw back to reveal the transcendent grandeur of the
alluring absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal
Father on those new and higher levels revealed in the
ultimate of creature experience.
[Sponsored by a Mighty
Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.] |